WEEK after week, the same correspondents have their letters published and yet it is clearly apparent to those of us in the know that many of the letters are drafted with political motivation and campaigning behind them and are not written by truly independent scribes.

Is it not time that your newspaper required these regular correspondents to state their political affiliations and/or memberships of the various parties after their names in the interests of fair play and to make sure that your readers are in full possession of the facts?

Some writers are using the Letters Page as a free-of-charge political publicity mechanism on a weekly basis and some readers may be under the wrong impression that there is no link between the individual correspondents and/or political organisations.

It has amazed me over the last 18 months how the same group of writers has appeared every week, almost without fail, when your publication must receive so very many letters. Let's give the readers all the facts. It is time the elected politicians and party officials wrote their own letters with their respective titles against their names, instead of all these other authors masquerading as independent correspondents. I sign my letters as Labour Party branch chairman, so that it is clear to the readers who I am and what I represent, as I have no wish to mislead anyone. Let's hope other correspondents will be prepared to match my honest approach.

BARBARA SHARPLES (Ms) (Chairman, Great Harwood branch Labour Party), Allsprings Drive, Great Harwood.

Footnote: We receive and publish letters in good faith. It is up to writers to announce any political affiliations they may have. It is not for us to ascribe such descriptions. As it happens, I believe our readers are intelligent enough to draw exactly the same conclusions as you - Editor

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